Saturday, February 14, 2015

I really do love my job. It is science. I work with great people. And I get to go do things like this.

Measuring stream flow in a creek in Cache County. Note the brown boots. By the time I got out of the stream I was sloshing inside. The boots had a leak.

Same activity but with my fashionista pink plaid boots from my closet taken on this trip because I had a stinking suspicion that the brown boots leaked.

These pictures are from a quick project last October-November that two of my coworkers took the lead on. The project involved evaluating how much surface water flow was coming out of different parts of the geologic system. To do that we had to measure stream flow, the quality of the water, and document where the streams were flowing vs. where they were dry. We were racing against the oncoming winter at a ski area on the county line between Cache County and Weber County to document base flow conditions (the hydrologic conditions that are creating the constant flow in streams, as opposed to run off events in the spring or after rain storms).

Coworker Maddie

Measuring.

Beautiful country.

No water in the stream bed.

Measuring water quality field parameters.

Driving crazy roads.

Nature is unbelievable.

A spring

Sometimes you gotta get in there and measure that junk.

At the base of the carbonate rocks.

Taking field notes before measuring stream flow. Damn those boots are hot.

Not the most secluded natural stream channel to measure flow, but man-made structures are convenient and repeatable.

Six of us worked long days in October to knock out the data collection. We hiked in some really interesting (hydrogeologically speaking) rugged terrain searching for places to measure water. My job is fun.

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Married With Bikes

This is a blog about mountain biking, mountain bike racing, home improvement projects on a 100-year old bungalow in Salt Lake City, travel in the U.S. and abroad, gardening, and whatever other adventures we find ourselves undertaking.